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Mr Lange to talk to nuclear Powers

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, will meet the Foreign Secretaries of the five nuclear Powers (including the Soviet Union) when he attends the opening session of the United Nations in New York later this month.

This follows the Government’s anti-nuclear policy on both nuclear-propelled and nuclear-armed ships, and its wish to see the South Pacific as a nuclear-free zone.

He expected that he would see the others after he had met the United States’ Secretary of State, Mr George Shultz. The others are Mr Andrei Gromyko (Soviet Union), Mr Wu Xueqian (China), Mr Geoffrey Howe (Britain) and Mr Claude Cheysson (France). Mr Lange said he thought it was important that New

Zealand be seen to be talking about the ban on visits by nuclear warships, not just to friends or traditional allies.

Some had been approached by the New Zealand Government and some had asked to see him.

“It is pointless merely talking to or seeming to be at odds with the one you are closest to,” he said. “I thought it was important that we should be seen to be talking about our position, not in terms of a stance against an ally or a traditional friend, but in the context of a very much broader concern to see that there is some development in disarmament.

“I believe you have to communicate the position to all the people who are so nuclear capable, and so I am anxious to see Mr Gromyko to tell him that New Zealand does not accept this escalating tension, and of the responsibility of his

Government to see that there is a climb down from that awful brink.”

Mr Lange said he would be giving all five Foreign Ministers the New Zealand Government view that the nuclear race was “insane.” The Leader of the Opposition, Sir Robert Muldoon, later described the proposed meetings as a public relations exercise, the Press Association reported. “They are not going to know who he is, most of them, and they’re certainly not going to change any of their views because a man named Lange who has been in office for about six or eight weeks comes along and says what he is hoping to do in respect of the A.N.Z.U.S. Treaty. “I think he is big-noting himself,” Sir Robert said. The important meeting would be the one with Mr Shultz “and I don’t think he (Mr Lange) is going to get any joy out of him.”

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840907.2.5

Bibliographic details

Press, 7 September 1984, Page 1

Word Count
420

Mr Lange to talk to nuclear Powers Press, 7 September 1984, Page 1

Mr Lange to talk to nuclear Powers Press, 7 September 1984, Page 1